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A Cartagena t-shirt
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Today's port of call was Cartagena, Colombia, located on the northern coast of South America. These days it is called the Pearl of the Caribbean, although its history is conflicting. Back in the 16th and 17th centuries, Cartagena was a gateway for gold leaving for Spain, and slaves arriving from Africa. Then along came the pirates, such as Sir Francis Drake, who sacked the city, robbing them of their riches. Massive fortifications were built, and have lasted to this day.
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| Castle of San Felipe, largest fortification in the city |
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Fort
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Protecting the harbor at one time
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| Fortress |
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Serious fortifications
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Now lined by a nice beach
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Mixed with the Old Walled City, Cartagena has towering high rise buildings, resorts, and hotels for those seeking a warm vacation. There are castles, churches, cathedrals, palaces, museums, many of which are within the Old Walled City, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.
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Church
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| Rocky entrance to harbor |
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Probably a place for shipwrecks centuries ago
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| Party huts |
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A new construction
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The skies were so hazy, photos were not great
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The Old Walled City
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Historic old town
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| Cartagena's skyline |
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| Bocagrande Peninsula |
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| Bocagrande Peninsula |
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| Fancy digs |
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| Palm-lined beaches |
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Hotel and resorts on this peninsula
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Highrise skyscrapers
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Famous harbor statue
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And we have seen them all many times over the years. For that reason, we chose to stay near the ship at the cruise terminal. Another good reason to stick close to home was the fact that all aboard time was 1:30 pm.
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Amsterdam docked
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While we were dining on deck four, the Coral Princess pulled across from our berth. She must have a gazillion passengers.
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We guess this ship holds about 3000 passengers
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The Coral Princess
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Our berth
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That means there will be about 4000 passengers onshore today, and that is not counting crew members. With the large number of buses parked on the dock, we assume many of those were on tours. We watched from the promenade deck while the people were coming off of the behemoth ship. The line never seemed to stop. Actually, there were two exits on the Coral Princess, which is a good thing.
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| Walkway to the terminal |
Walking to the terminal building, we realized it was going to be a very hot and humid day. Rain would have been welcomed if it happened, which it never did. It was quite overcast today, but what veiled the city was more like smoke or smog. It only added to the stickiness.
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Skies looked like rain was coming.....but never did
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This is probably one reason that this is the end of the tourist season. As hurricane season approaches, the weather must get even less comfortable.
The terminal building houses a very nice and air-conditioned shop for souveniers. As well as highend jewelry, they offer coffee, candies, liqueres, clothing and all types of Colombian souveniers.
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Duty Free Shop in the terminal
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We always find something to buy in here, and today was no exemption. They sell a collection of locally-made calabash or gourd jewelry sets. We added one more set to the growing collection.
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Inside the duty free shop
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| Local crocheter |
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Handmade purses
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| Young girl guarding the yarn |
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Local handicrafts
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| Native Colombian |
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Also native Colombian
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Cafe at the cruise terminal
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Terminal building....very civilized
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Fruit-on-the-head trick to get photos
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Outside surrounding this shop are gardens that are full of birds and even some monkeys. Some are caged, but most of the birds are free-flying.
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| Walkway among the gardens |
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| Ginger |
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| Tropical flowers |
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| Fountain outside the terminal |
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| Garden fountain |
One rather feisty blue and yellow macaw was having a fine time chasing the folks and trying to chew or untie shoes. He was quite adept at pulling Velcro straps on sandals, showing how smart these birds can be. One thing he did know, was what a cane was, as many of the elderly ladies shooed him away with it.
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| Macaws |
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| Two blue and yellow macaws |
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| Blue and yellow macaw |
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| Pretty bird |
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Turquoise and yellow
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Housing for the macaws
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Another type of macaw...perhaps a young military macaw
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We are not totally sure he was harmless, because with that strong beak, he could be capable of severing a finger if he chose to. Anyway, it was amusing watching his antics as he chased lots of folks.
What else did we see? Well, there were the too familiar peacocks, many of them roosting in the trees overhead. Kind of makes us wonder how noisy they have become at home? Springtime brings out the noise with these birds. A cage in the garden was full of small vermilion cardinals, native to South America.
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| Vermilion cardinal |
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| Vermilion cardinals, seed & fruit eaters |
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Also a pretty bird
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Also caged were a broad-winged hawk, a band-bellied owl, and a few toucans.
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| Broad-winged hawk |
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| Band-bellied owl.....he eats frogs, bats, crayfish & crabs |
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| A warning posture |
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Channel-billed toucan
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They had both the keel-billed toucans and the channel-billed toucans....so colorful, they did not look real.
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| Keel-billed toucan |
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| But he is |
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| Too perfect to be real |
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| Four colors in his bill |
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| He is a fruit eater |
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| Another warning |
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| Go away |
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| More photos to enjoy........ |
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| Keel-billed toucan |
A special breed of monkeys were either in cages or running around loose. They were small, and unfortunately unidentified without any signs showing their name.
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| A small & unusual type of monkey |
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| Could not find his name posted anywhere |
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| A face only a mama monkey could love |
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| This one was isolated |
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May be a new one
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At the entrance to the terminal, we saw a flock of greater flamingos, which they have named American flamingos.
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Greater flamingos (American)
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| The coral color comes from eating shrimps |
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Some are more colorful than others
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| Lawn ornament or real? |
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| Preening |
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Perfect
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Flamingos
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In the same enclosure with them, were a half dozen black swans.
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Imported black swans
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Joining this group were a few large iguanas, who were happy to munch on lettuce their caretakers had just left for them.
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| Iguana |
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Iguana
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Looks prehistoric
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The peacocks also seemed to like the lettuce, like ours do at home.
Outside the terminal, we saw some great egrets, brown pelicans, and the magnificent frigate birds.
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| A great egret |
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| Egret |
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| Egret |
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Egret food.......small fish
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Pelicans perched
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Brown pelican
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Low-flying pelican
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| Pelican |
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| A frigate |
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| Two frigates |
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| Looking for fish |
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Frigate
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Great-tailed grackles, which look a lot like crows, were sneaking into the enclosures and stealing the bird feed.
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Grackle
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A dark reddish squirrel was busy eating the papayas and seeds that were left for the birds. We are not huge fans of squirrels, since they are responsible for the destruction of our walnuts, pecans, and almond trees at home. But this one was very neat-looking, and probably just as destructive.
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| Red squirrel |
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| She found food |
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| If I look really hard, I will find nuts |
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| Think I smell nuts |
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Maybe down this way
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After spending about an hour here, we headed back to the ship. This time we cheated and took the waiting free shuttle back. We were melted and in need of some ice water. Gallons of it. Sailaway was at 1:30pm, and we were surprised to see piles of lounges that will be set up tomorrow on the aft deck while we are sailing through the canal.
If the weather is as hot as today, we doubt there will be a whole lot of people outside tomorrow. Today there were many more people at the sailaway.
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Sailaway party once again
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Dropping the lines
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There was also a different type of music back there with the newly-embarked guitar man, David, playing some nice tunes. Guess you can say he is a little bit country, and little bit rock and roll. We like his music, as it is a nice change from the world cruise band.
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David, the solo guitarist
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The "Blues" sisters
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The Coral Princess was leaving port 1 hour after us
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| Container ship arriving |
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| Tugboat |
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| Another cargo ship |
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| Tug |
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Sailboat
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Pleasure craft
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There goes the pilot
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Cooling off in our room, we ordered room service lunch while watching a movie, Gravity. It sure was different than most movies we have seen.....really plays with your imagination.
Other things happening today included learning the tango for the Dancing with the Stars at Sea program. One could also sign up for the special dinner, Le Cirque, held in the Pinnacle Grill this evening. We did notice that the price was the usual $49., but the dinner with wine pairing was $69., which we believe was $10 less than on the world cruise. We stuck with the dining room dinner, having entrees of turkey with all of the trimmings.
Let's Get It On, was the show performed by the Amsterdam singers and dancers this evening at 8 and 10pm. Last year, this showtime was at 9:30pm, and we expected that to remain the same on this voyage. Wonder who sets the times on these activities? The cruise director perhaps? Anyway, the heat of the day had left us really tired, so we missed the show again.
Tomorrow will find us all waking up and finding we have started into the Panama Canal locks. Hope the weather cooperates because we like to watch the transit from the outside decks all day.
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| Leaving the port |
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Leaving Cartagena
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